It was my biggest hope that Lion would be the end of iOSing a desktop operating system, but it just keeps getting worse. Between this and Windows 8, I can imagine I'll be on W7/10.6 for the rest of my life.

At 8:30 a.m. EST Thursday, the developer preview version of Mountain Lion was live and available to Apple’s legions of app makers. Mashable was briefed on the new Mac OS prior to the announcement.

Bottom line? It’s a few more vital steps closer to fully connecting the experience you have on the Mac with the world of the iPad and the iPhone — dumping iChat in favor of iMessage and Twitter, to take the most radical example. It’s almost as if it makes your Mac moonlight as an iPad.

But it is categorically not the one OS to rule them all, if such a thing is even on Apple’s radar.

OS 10.7, or Lion, launched in July 2011; 30% of Mac users now have it installed. (Another 50% of us still favor Snow Leopard). Coming in the wake of the iPad, it was clearly influenced by the success of the device. It introduced such iOS-like features as multitouch gestures on the trackpad and a “launchpad” of apps that looked just like the iPad’s home screen.

Some of us began to wonder, with some cause, whether Mac OS X and the iOS were heading for a marriage down the road.

The iOS Moves In

Well, here’s the next phase in the relationship, and iOS has practically moved in to Mac’s house. If Lion was a toothbrush in the bathroom, Mountain Lion is a chest of drawers in the bedroom. Reminders, iMessage, Game Center, Notifications, iCloud and Twitter integration — all iOS’s most intimate stuff is here, and it all pretty much looks the same as it does on the iPad. Most of it is designed to sync up so it is exactly the same.

SEE ALSO: Apple Mountain Lion Embraces Flickr and Vimeo Sharing
And Mac OS X has had to throw out some of its stuff. Bouncing icons in the dock? Who needs them when you’ve got Notifications, which appear in classy banners down the side of the screen? The venerable antique Instant Message software, iChat, a 2002 vintage? A stupid wagon-wheel coffee table, says iOS. Throw it out.

Instead, here’s iMessage, which will still let you IM your contacts (if you must). But what it really wants you to do is use Apple’s seamless texting replacement of the same name. Admittedly, the thought of being able to immediately text anyone with an iPhone for free from your desktop is so unbelievably cool, it can bring on an attack of the vapors.

You get the sense the Mac is going to be happy with its new roommate. What’s not to like about Airplay, which can seamlessly mirror your desktop on an HDTV? Or a separate Notes app, where you can attach notes to the desktop like stickies? Or Game Center, which will mean a lot more cross-device play?

Or a “share sheet,” which effectively means developers are going to be able to put Twitter buttons everywhere? Mountain Lion will already let you tweet from all standard OS X apps such as Safari and Photo Booth. That means you can sit and take photos of yourself and instantly tweet them, to your heart’s content. It’s a boon for Twitter users (Twitter readers, not so much).

So things are going to be a lot more fun around the edges of the Mac OS — which is no bad thing. At the grand old age of 12, OS X was starting to seem a little too same-y with each iteration. This new younger partner is about to give the Mac a new lease on life. (How much that will cost, we don’t know; Apple isn’t announcing a price yet, or a launch date more precise than “late summer.”)

But don’t expect iOS to go hog-wild and bring its apps on board in future versions. Apple is giving a hefty push to the Mac app store, which benefits from a security feature called Gatekeeper where you can limit installations to just Mac store apps. (You might want to do this for your malware prone-parents, say.)

Developers are going to have to make two separate versions of apps they want on Mac and iOS for some time to come, and that’s just fine with Apple. When it comes to its two operating systems, the company seems to believe living together is good enough.

So what do you think? Will you buy it? Take a quick gander at a video we put together with material from Apple, then a gallery of screenshots — and last but not least, your chance to chat up a storm about this major Mac development in the comments.

It's not that big of a deal, most of the stuff they're adding are either just simple things you can ignore (Game Center) or things that can be turned off (Gatekeeper). Personally I think that overhauling iChat is welcome, and aside from that most of the features announced so far are pretty minor.

When they start making something like Gatekeeper compulsory, that's when I'll stop updating.

It's not that big of a deal, most of the stuff they're adding are either just simple things you can ignore (Game Center) or things that can be turned off (Gatekeeper). Personally I think that overhauling iChat is welcome, and aside from that most of the features announced so far are pretty minor.

When they start making something like Gatekeeper compulsory, that's when I'll stop updating.

While I agree that it's not that big of a deal as it is, I feel like the foot was pushed in the door with Lion and is only opening more and more with each release. The Gatekeeper functionality is really the only scary feature. Yes, it is optional but it fits so well with the gated community idea that iOS has I can easily see it becoming permanent in the future. It's turning into an iPad without a touchscreen right before my eyes.

The rest of the features I don't care for, I have an android phone. More than half of this doesn't benefit me whatsoever. Twitter integration, what? OS X isn't targeted towards me anymore.

Just installed this now, seems pretty good. I came straight from Snow Leopard after not upgrading my main machine to Lion because I hated what they'd done with it, but stuff like AirPlay Mirroring and Messages was enough to tempt me to try it. Happy to answer any questions you have about it.

People are going over the top about the iOSing thing. I think Apple are just trying to merge features from iOS so it's more unified and recognizable to people who have started to use Apple products from the iPhone and iPad, but they're still keeping it a desktop OS.

People are going over the top about the iOSing thing. I think Apple are just trying to merge features from iOS so it's more unified and recognizable to people who have started to use Apple products from the iPhone and iPad, but they're still keeping it a desktop OS.

I agree, it's the same as with Windows. While I didn't really see the idea behind Launchpad, as I'm of the opinion that there's better ways to find your apps, I'm not one to criticize it, as I'm one of those who actually likes the new Windows start menu.

I agree, it's the same as with Windows. While I didn't really see the idea behind Launchpad, as I'm of the opinion that there's better ways to find your apps, I'm not one to criticize it, as I'm one of those who actually likes the new Windows start menu.

Agreed, Launchpad is something that grows on you. When they first announced Launchpad I thought it was completely pointless, as all of your apps were already in the Applications folder, but being able to access all of your apps through one small gesture actually became a pretty convieneint and nice way to open apps.

Agreed, Launchpad is something that grows on you. When they first announced Launchpad I thought it was completely pointless, as all of your apps were already in the Applications folder, but being able to access all of your apps through one small gesture actually became a pretty convieneint and nice way to open apps.

Without having tried Launchpad, it's looks kinda redundant to me, but if it works, it's cool. Is there a search function built in?

Agreed, Launchpad is something that grows on you. When they first announced Launchpad I thought it was completely pointless, as all of your apps were already in the Applications folder, but being able to access all of your apps through one small gesture actually became a pretty convieneint and nice way to open apps.

Cmd + Space (Spotlight) -> Type Application Name -> Enter

Fastest way I've found without a program like Alfred or Quicksilver, being Spotlight it even prioritizes the results based on the applications you use the most. Hell, you don't even have to type the whole application name in most cases.

Just installed this now, seems pretty good. I came straight from Snow Leopard after not upgrading my main machine to Lion because I hated what they'd done with it, but stuff like AirPlay Mirroring and Messages was enough to tempt me to try it. Happy to answer any questions you have about it.

Without having tried Launchpad, it's looks kinda redundant to me, but if it works, it's cool. Is there a search function built in?

It is redundant, but it's still a nice little way to open apps. I like it since all I have to do is pinch the trackpad and all of my programs are laid out right in front of me, but it's not for everyone. Of course using Cmd + Space still works as well.

The only thing that I'm looking forward to is getting rid of fucking growl, that shit won't piss off with its stupid updates and it annoys the living poo poo out of me. the new chat thing looks like it'll be pretty pro too but Timb can keep the rest in the mountain lion's cage.

How about they actually come up with some new features before releasing a new OS? I mean. Lion didn't even feel new... Neither did Snow Leopard.

Leopard was like stacked to the edge with new features. Going back to Tiger seemed impossible. But going back to Leopard from Lion seems entirely reasonable. This means that they're not bringing the RIGHT new features to the table.

Leopard was like stacked to the edge with new features. Going back to Tiger seemed impossible. But going back to Leopard from Lion seems entirely reasonable. This means that they're not bringing the RIGHT new features to the table.

Leopard brought a new UI to the table that people came familiar with through iTunes on the PC. Since people became used to this, Apple was able to implement the strategy of "Don't change the OS; add new features instead".

This means that people are able to upgrade without the fear that they've got something new and unreasonably hard to learn. Admittedly, these people are a bit less tech savvy, but I suspect people will have a much easier time upgrading to Mountain Lion over Windows 8.

Tis true, but sometimes when a radical UI change could allow people to understand and navigate a UI much easier, it does need to be changed, such as with Office 2007. The ribbon interface was 10x better than the horrible stacked toolbars and mountains of drop down menus. But as with Apple being very good with UI design to start with, I don't see much room for improvement anyway. I'm not quite sure if I like the new Windows 8 UI, but I probably won't be able to fully judge until it's released properly with metro apps